Westfield surges past Harrison in football opener

WESTFIELD — Westfield scored nine points in five minutes at the end of the first half to roll to a 22-7 victory over Harrison Friday night at Riverview Health Stadium in the season opener for both teams.

What happened?

Westfield, last year’s Class 5A state champion but now in Class 6A, used its experienced defense and Harrison mistakes to knock off the Raiders.

The defenses dictated play. Both teams scored on a big play in the first half. Westfield’s came on a backwards pass to Matthew Meyer who found Seth Tackett wide open for a 47-yard touchdown.

“They hit with us a really nice trick play with the double pass,” Harrison coach Terry Peebles said. “The defense played unbelievably except for the trick play. Offensively, we just made too many mistakes.”

Harrison came back with a 41-yard touchdown run by Jonathan LaGuire to tie it at 7-7.

Westfield managed just two field goals in the second half by Alex Bales. Harrison’s only chance to score in the second half came at the start of the fourth quarter. The Raiders had a first and goal at the 3 but could not punch it in.

“We had four tries inside the 3 yard line,” Peebles said. “We have four senior linemen and a junior lineman who is 285 pounds. We need to be able to run the ball and get it in in four trys.”

Turning point

The teams were locked in a 7-7 battle late in the second quarter. Harrison was pinned deep in its territory. Westfield’s Seth Tackett picked off a LaGuire pass and returned it to the Harrison 14. The Raiders were called for a personal foul and Westfield had a first and goal from the 7. Two plays later, Cameron Nance scored from the 4 to put Westfield up 14-7 with 3:04 left before halftime.

Harrison got the ball back at the 20 but two sacks left LaGuire in the end zone for a safety, giving Westfield a 16-7 halftime lead.

“We did a really good job of fighting back,” Peebles said. “We had a really nice drive and got us back in the game. Then it was just a comedy of errors. We don’t field a punt and gets us inside our 2. We think we get out of that but then we false start and go right back down there. Then we tried to throw a long pass to get us out of the hole and they intercepted. We don’t make a play on the ball and they get the ball in great field position.”

“We got outmanned in those series,” LaGuire said. “The momentum was definitely with them at halftime. We would have had more confidence if the score had been tied at halftime. We were a little down at halftime.”

What's it mean?

This is the 13th straight year the teams have met in the season opener. Harrison has not beaten Westfield since 2010.

Player of the game

LaGuire led Harrison with 92 yards rushing and threw for 120 yards. The senior did have three interceptions.

“We were in the right place at the right time on offense but we just need to execute better,” the senior quarterback said. “We didn’t do a bad job overall.”

Harrison held Westfield’s Nate Froelich to 92 yards on 24 carries. Froelich rushed for over 1,000 yards last year for the Shamrocks.

“We did really good against them but we could have done better,” Harrison safety Giovanni Zappala said. “We did really good against them. If we can play them, we can play against anyone.”